{postcards from India-Mumbai beginnings}

{Gateway of India at dusk}

In  my previous post, I discussed what draws me to India, and in this post, I begin writing down some of the details of our trip! We arrived in India on January 3 and were picked up by our faithful taxi/tour company State Express. We drove to our simple but clean hotel near the Gateway of India. The roads were fairly empty because of protests due to disputes between castes. All shops were closed and at one point we thought we might not be able to get to our hotel. We passed all types of architecture, ranging from humble abodes to the most luxury accommodations: crumbling old British buildings; a large monstrosity that is apparently the most expensive house in the world; as well as slums, with tarps for roofs. 

{faded grandeur}

{neogothic taken over by banyan}

{brightly coloured Mumbai dwellings}

Brightly coloured buildings, some with only three walls revealed the inhabitants inside—the second floors reached by little ladders attached to the side of the house….men drinking chai or reading newspapers, while others slept. With no room for washrooms inside, men washed themselves outside on the road.
 Roads closer to our destination were closed and after a detour we arrived at our hotel. The hotel staff advised us to not go outside due to unrest. We settled on some dahl and rice at the hotel’s restaurant, my father exclaiming ‘I could eat this food for the rest of my life.’ Having been brought up in India this was the food of his youth.

By late evening things had calmed down and we ventured out to the Gateway of India, with many Indians out for an evening stroll, takings selfies against the sunset and the Gateway of India.  Many boats were moored on the Arabian Sea and my Dad revealed this is where he had first learned to sail, a remarkable start to a career as a captain who has sailed the seven seas!

{Taj Palace Hotel}

{Arabian Sea}

 We ventured into the old Taj Palace Hotel—where we stayed 25 years ago on our first trip as a family to India—and had a drink in the piano bar called the Sea Lounge. There was live piano music playing and we were served by a nice waiter who had worked at the Taj his whole life, and was soon to retire. He brought us endless plates of free Mumbai street food, with a gourmet twist.

{Gateway at night}

The next day we ventured out to Chor Bazaar—a Muslim quarter where anything from antique brass, Hindu and Christian sculptures and old prints, to bathtubs, archaic phones, and suitcases can be bought.

We stopped off in a little shop (after crossing the terrifying traffic) and bought some Kurta Pajama for my dad, who ever since he was a boy wears these to bed.

{Mumbai streets}

We then went to what was once called the Prince of Wales Museum (now Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya) a fine example of ‘Indo-Saracenic’ architecture, where we saw the Tata collection of European paintings, including a work reportedly by Dosso Dossi, once in Alfonso d’Este’s camerino in Ferrara as well as Hindu sculptures, a fine collection of Chinese porcelain and an impressive collection of miniature paintings covering all types from Rajput paintings to Mughal illumination. Mughal emperor Akbar's armour is also on display! I was impressed with the modern museum displays and the accompanying texts, something we wouldn’t find in other museums on our trip.

{Prince of Wales Museum}

We also briefly stopped off at Victoria Terminus (now Chhatrapati Shivaji)—what appears to be St. Pancras transported into Mumbai, yet the traffic in front of it was much different than Euston road, where school boys cross the street, dodging lorries, scooters, and men carrying things on their heads!

{Victoria Terminus}

After a rest, we enjoyed dinner at Delhi Darbar, a famed restaurant known for its fine curries, with simple décor but excellent food.
On 5 January, we took a cab to the Four Seasons and joined my eldest sister, Julia, who had arrived early that morning. We had the day to kill before our overnight train left for Goa, so we enjoyed relaxing by the pool as well as a short taxi ride to the Dhobi ghat, the largest outdoor laundry, where  dhobi wallahs wash clothes and textiles in large tubs in the ground and hang the laundry to dry. A kaleidoscope of colours greets the onlooker, with each dhobi specialising in a colour or type of laundry, from the white sheets of nearby hotels, to blue denim jeans. While we were onlooking and Dad was rattling off in Hindi to a handful of women trying to sell various things, one of the dhobis lost their footing and fell into the tubs, bringing a whole pile of laundry with him!

{stark contrasts between Mumbai high rises & the dhobi ghats}

We headed back to the hotel for dinner and awaited with slight trepidation the overnight sleeper journey to Goa. Stay tuned for that adventure in the next installment!
Xo,
L